I took a Fiore Longsword class with the Phoenix Society, and their head instructor is actually in charge of the US organization that oversees HEMA competitions. Very cool stuff, and there is a lot of overlap between HEMA and Okinawan martial arts.

This is really worth a watch. The parallels to karate are plain to see:

Trying to work out the techniques of old masters from imperfect historical sources; discussing the pros and cons of rules-based tournaments; distinguishing between what looks good for the movies and effecive techniques etc.